If there is one overriding theme in a bunch of my reviews here at NCS, it has been a want to describe much of the death metal genre’s method of musical devastation on a cosmic scale. In lieu of the gore-splattered viscera that often seems perfect for describing the various collections of intestines that death metal often romps around in, I’ve found that planetary annihilation, destruction of universes, and universal phenomena have time and time again been perfect for drawing allegories when writing around the differing arsenals of blast beats and guitar-fire trench-runs that many death metal bands get up to.

I have been recently trying to change this up a bit. I know that constantly seeing the same descriptors over and over again can make it seem like authors have copy+paste notebooks next to them when writing reviews. But there is one band for whom I feel I must make an exception, and that is Spain’s sci-fi brutal death metal architects Wormed — because Wormed are death metal on a cosmic scale, and nothing would be more fitting as a descriptor of the gamma rays of a dying star destroying a nearby galaxy than an album by Wormed; that could be what has happened within even one of their songs.

Plus, up until 2013’s Exodromos, it’s not as if we could pretend this was an opportunity that would present itself frequently. But coming in hot three years later is Krighsu, Wormed’s late-March followup to Exodromos, and it promises a return to the maddening sci-fi machinations of a band who occupy their own realm of hammering death metal, with a helping of growls so low they could rumble the Earth.Continue reading »

I had planned a very large round-up of recent music for today. It’s not finished yet, but I still have hopes. Yet as I try to catch up on sharing metal that I discovered over the last week, I continue to be overtaken by metal that has appeared within the last hour or two. Rather than try to cram these new discoveries into that planned round-up, I’m setting that aside so I can bring you this trio of items while they’re still hot off the presses.

WORMED

I’m going to assume that everyone knows Wormed has a new album named Krighsu, and that it will be essential listening here in the first quarter of 2016. And now you can get started listening to it, because a full album stream premiered today at DECIBEL.Continue reading »

I didn’t pounce on some of the songs in this round-up as fast as I would have liked, but it seems that there are people who still manage to discover new music through these collections even when the songs aren’t piping hot right out of the oven. But I’ll start with a couple of tracks that actually did just premiere today, before getting to the ones that appeared earlier in the week.

I’m sad to say that this is a day when I’m pressed for time, and so I’m unable to whip together the mini-reviews that usually accompany songs I’m enthusiastic about. I’ll say only that I’m REALLY enthusiastic about all of these.

WORMED

Today Revolver Magazine hosted the debut of not one but two new songs off Krighsu, the new album by Spain’s Wormed. The tracks are named “The Singularitarianism” and “Eukaryotic Hex Swarm”, and are accompanied by this description from the band:Continue reading »

I’ve had a crazy week, much of the craziness resulting from the demands of my fucking day job, coupled with hours spent yesterday morning anxiously working with our web host’s tech support to figure out how to get into the WordPress software for our site so I could write and post things — because it had spontaneously decided to lock me out.

Anyway, the net result of all this is that I’ve fallen way behind in both listening to and writing about new music — other than the enormous number of premieres we agreed to post this week. I’ve also been unable to write new installments of our 2015 Most Infectious Songs list. With luck, I can get that going again tomorrow.

Intermittently since the craziness began, I have managed to discover the interesting new things I’ve collected in this post, though I still have lots of catching up to do. I’ll begin with two news items and then move into actual music.

MOONSORROW

Yesterday brought the very welcome announcement that Finland’s Moonsorrow will release their seventh studio album on April 1 (via Century Media). The title is Jumalten Aika, which means ‘The Age Of Gods’ in English.Continue reading »

We keep our eyes and ears open so you don’t have to. Except when you’re crossing the street. You should keep your eyes and ears open when you do that. Also when driving and performing open-heart surgery. There might be a few other exceptions that I’m not thinking of at the moment, but otherwise we can be your eyes and ears. And here are a few recommended things we’ve seen and heard this morning: new music from Wormed (Spain), Negator (Germany), and Monotheist (Florida).

WORMED

“Tautochrone” is a fuckin’ great song. It’s by Spanish death metal band Wormed and it appears on their excellent new album Exodromos. It’s a brutal, blazing song, but Wormed add both technical and near-ambient melodic elements that most purveyors of brutal death don’t even dream of doing, and Wormed do it superbly.

And I’m thinking of that song why? Because yesterday Wormed released an official video for it. I haven’t yet figured out whether it’s the video that’s strobing and shaking, or my eyeballs. Either way, it’s cool.Continue reading »

I’ve again gotten tired of “Seen and Heard” as the title for these round-up posts. I thought about using “Scene and Herd”, but decided that would give the wrong impression about the news and new music included in these posts, since the subjects are items that get me interested and often excited. So, for now at least, “Witnessed”. This round-up includes not only some things I’d like to share but also a blurb from DGR. Here we go:

OMNIUM GATHERUM

Sadistic bastards that we are, in December we published three different glowing reviews of Beyond, the forthcoming album by Finland’s Omnium Gatherum, despite the fact that the album won’t be released until late February in Europe and March 5 in the U.S. and we had no music we were authorized to stream from the album. Well, now we have music.

This morning Omnium Gatherum put up the song “New Dynamic” on YouTube. Good choice: along with “The Sonic Sign”, it’s my favorite track on Beyond. Give it a listen and then let us know if you think we were being overly enthusiastic about what Omnium Gatherum has accomplished or if you agree that this shit is fantastic.Continue reading »

In this post I’m collecting reviews of three releases that I recommend to you most highly: Liquefied Embodied Dissonance by Splattered, Quasineutrality by Wormed, and Just the Tip by Vaginal Bear Trap. All three are available on Bandcamp, one of them is free, and all are united by a love of brutality that seeps from every pore and a load of instrumental talent.

I have two NCS readers to thank for these discoveries: Vonlughlio tipped me to the first and last of these bands, and Utmu recommended Wormed.

SPLATTERED

The members of Splattered are from Fremont and Pleasanton, California. Last month they self-released a debut EP by the name of Liquefied Embodied Dissonance. It includes only three songs, but they make a powerful impression, like the impression that would be left by a sledgehammer if brought down vigorously on top of your head.

Brutal, slamming, gurgling death metal isn’t known for its subtlety. What you want from it, and what you get from Splattered in spades, is a pulverizing beat down. Splattered splatter their music with jet-fueled riffs, convulsive rhythms, and punishing percussion. And those gut-deep gurgling vocals are exactly what the doctor ordered, that is, if the doctor is an unlicensed butcher.Continue reading »

November is done, and the countdown begins to the end of 2011 and he beginning of the New Year. We’ve been so focused this week on the year behind us, since 2011 Listmania is now in full swing, that we almost forgot that there is a future, and it will be filled with metal.

So, here’s the deal: In these METAL IN THE FORGE posts, we collect news blurbs and press releases we’ve seen over the last month (November) about forthcoming new albums from bands we know and like (including occasional updates about releases we’ve included in previous installments of this series), or from bands that look interesting, even though we don’t know their music yet. In this series, we cut and paste those announcements and compile them in alphabetical order.

Remember — THIS ISN’T A CUMULATIVE LIST. If we found out about a new forthcoming album before November, we wrote about it in previous installments of this series. So, be sure to check the Category link called “Forthcoming Albums” on the right side of this page to see forecasted releases we reported earlier.

This month’s list begins right after the jump. As usual, this list is half-assed rather than comprehensive. So, feel free to leave Comments and tell all of us what we missed when we put this list together. Let us know about albums on the way that you’re stoked about!Continue reading »